Beast and the Beast 09

Hey Folks.

Have managed to get another couple of bits painted this week. Have pretty much finished setting up the Man Cave in the new house but after taking a couple of pictures I am not so happy with the camera setup. I used to use a desk lamp, in the new Man Cave I thought I would try with natural light but the pictures don't look so good, so bare with me whilst I work on getting a setup I like.

So nothing major in this blog post just a couple of updates.

I have made many references to my hobby butterfly tendencies and making lists and I have basically failed. So my resolution this year was to finish one 40K army (the Daemons). I have employed technology in the form of an app called Wunderlist and am noting down the models I am going to paint in order, ticking them off when complete. I am hoping the application of the technological list will help.

So first tick on the list was the Beasts of Nurgle. I am using three in the army and model wise I am going to use the Nurgle Plague Toads from Forge World. They are great models and full of Nurgle flavour, although a bit bigger than the standard model I am just going to use them anyway as they just look too awesome.

Beasts of Nurgle.

 Simple models but just so full of character.

This next model isn't on the list but I actually painted it some time ago but didn't get chance to take a picture. This is Beast09, a fantastic Khador Warjack. I am trying a couple of new casters one of them being Sorcha, this is her Jack. I like to use character Warjacks for the appropriate caster as it just adds a bit of fluff.

Beast 09

I tried him out for the first time last night and he was pretty awesome, he just walked up to a Menoth Heavy and toasted it in one go with a little help from Sorcha's feat. He is very much an all rounder, he can take infantry with Thresher, he charges for free, he can boost all his hits for the cost of one focus, has reach and with a boost from Sorcha has an effective threat range of 11 inches, whats not to love?














Until next time...

Return of the Nurgle

Hey Folks.... Its been a while since the last post, house moving is a pain and seems to take a lot longer than you think it will. I am still in the process of getting everything setup, I have a painting desk finally so have started to paint again after a long break. The man cave has been done, well the basics anyway. Only one casualty - one of my display cases door shattered on the way up the stairs, not sure what happened but it was roughly 5 minutes after I had said "I got these from Argos and they have lasted ages".

What I have done is made a decision - I need to finish off one of my semi completed 40K projects and the most advanced is my Nurgle Daemons. Its so close to completion that it won't take much to get it done. I have been playing with a few list ideas but for this army I am just going to go with what I like the look of, not going to pay too much attention to whats powerful or the latest net list.

Having looked at the net lists they seem to revolve around maxed out flying Daemon Princes with minimal troops and some allied Chaos Space Marines to allow access to a Helldrake. I would love a Helldrake in the army as the one thing my list is going to lack is the ability to deal with flyers but this is just something I am going to have to try and deal with. I will have a couple of Soul Grinders that can shoot flyers but not sure how affective they will be.

The reason I don't like the maxed out DP lists are they just look lope sided, why would an army have all the most power things but minimal troops? It just doesn't look right to me.

So this is the 1850 list I am going to start with, still a few points left as I need to decide on Icons and Gifts.

Ku'gath Plaguefather.
Daemon Prince (Wings).
Soul Grinder.
Soul Grinder.
5 or 6 Plague Drones.
3 Beasts of Nurgle.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
7 Nurglings.

I am going for the Horde approach as thats what I think Daemons would do, open a rift and then pile through. I went for Ku'gath as I want to use the Forge World model and its suitably impressive that it could only be Ku'garth. Plus he also has a useful ranged attack as well as being rock hard.

The flying DP can zip around and take out those hard to reach targets as the rest of the army is slow, he can also help to deal with flyers.

The Soul Grinders also have a Skyfire attack so can help out on the flyer front, the Phlegm Cannon is also good against infantry and they are good at taking out hard targets in close combat.

The Flies can run up the pitch and help to get some accurate deep strikes with icons and are also pretty good in combat.

Then lots of troops in the form of Plaguebearers. These will go for objectives, the only concern is not running Heralds to give them Feel No Pain. As the PB's lack any real damage output and with there being so many I am thinking the points spent on Heralds could be used on other things.

The Nurglings are there because I think they look cool and why not use them.

So thats the list, I don't think its going to be mega competitive in the current game which is dominated by shooting but I think as an army it will look awesome. As I mentioned before I have pretty much got all the models already so there won't be much to buy and with the paint scheme I have it won't take a lot of work to get it to the table. With the other armies I was considering (Deathwing or Eldar) I would basically be starting from scratch.

P.S.

So work has begun, Christmas has just come and gone and Santa was kind. The Forgeworld Greater Daemon model, three Plague Toads and a Plague Drone were deposited in my stocking. Also got some vouchers which meant I could purchase the extra Plague Drones and Nurglings. So I think I have all the models I need.

I managed to finish the Greater Daemon over the Christmas holidays. Plague Toads (which I will be using as Beasts) are next.

Forgeworld Greater Daemon of Nurgle. 

Until next time...

FoW (zee Germans)

Hey Folks...

Just a quick one with a picture of my finished Flames of War Germans. I don't really have the photo setup right now to take decent close ups of 6mm so here is a large group shot. This is the contents of the Open Fire starter set, I will probably paint up the yanks at some point but I have this real thing for German tanks, I think they look loads better than the Allies.

I am not too familiar with the correct terms of FoW yet but the army is basically: -

1. A command group with rocket launcher support.
2. Two units of Rifle/Machine Gun teams.
3. Two PaK40's.
4. Three Stugs (Tank Hunter Tanks).

Pretty easy to paint allow the Infantry was a bit of a grind but I really like the way the look when finished. I have my first game lined up in a couple of weeks so will spend a bit of time flicking through the rule book, I have plans on how to expand this army so will see how the first game goes and then expand from there.

Until next time...

Centurions

Hey Folks

Trying to get as much Hobby in as possible at the moment. I should be moving house in a few weeks so I suspect my hobby time might get reduced for a while after the move. The bonus is that the house we are moving to is only 50ft way so moving should be fairly pain free, I also get my own man-cave too. I am hoping this will give me enough space to put in some kind of video setup so I can do some model 360 vids. But I need to fully plan out the room first.

So whats been going on? Well I have had my second and third games in the Warmachine tourney against Dave and his Cryx and Andrew and his Gators. Dave put his army on the table and my first thought was that I had no chance of winning. Dave had a couple of Units of Banes, Nyss and Goreshade ready to summon another Bane unit. He also had a couple of fast moving jacks and Tartar Sauce to get Banes back if I managed to kill any. I was using my more sensible army but looking at the sheer number of Weapon Master Banes I thought I was going to get smashed. But I always have a good game against Dave so I set about trying to do my best.

I got lucky early game, my Widowmakers shot up the Nyss and then they ran away. Dave's first charge against my Man-O-War failed to do much thanks to some bad dice rolls on Dave's part and a couple of passed Tough tests for me. The Man-O-War with a damage boost buff managed to dispatch most of the Banes in front of them and then the Winterguard hiding behind them managed to take out a few more. I feated which prevented Dave from charging and then my shooting managed to take out enough of the remaining Banes to reduce Dave's damage output to non-threat levels. It was a tense game but I played a lot better in this game, thinking about my own strengths and plan and not letting the other army freak me out into a change of plan. It worked and I also got a bit of luck. In the end it was a bit of a slaughter, I lost the Man-O-War and a couple of Winterguard, Dave was left with his caster.

I also managed to get a win against Andrews Gators winning on scenario. This was just a game of attrition, two armies grinding it out against each other and I came out ahead. The Gators are good but their model count was low and my Khador can take hits as well as dishing out the pain. The Gators were good and difficult to get rid of, but once they started falling each model lost was a real hit for the army.

Spiggan

Model wise I have put together a couple of new casters (pVald and pButcher) and made a start on the Warjack Drago. I also put together Gorman de Wolfe and Eyriss, I used them for the first time in a game in Brighton and really liked them, they may have to find a space in more of my Khador armies. After these guys I will probably leave the Khador for a while, I am still after a Behemoth and War Wagon so if I see those models around I will pick them up. I did manage to finish my Spriggan although he is yet to take the field in anger.

 I continue to work on the Flames of War starter set Germans and have completed the command section. I have also painted up a couple more Bolt Action models, again completing my German commander unit. I also put together my first infantry unit and they are on the paint station ready and waiting.

Bolt Action German Command

Centurions

GW released the new Space Marine codex this month, so I picked that up as well as a box of the new Centurions. I didn't like these when I first saw them but the real models are better than the pictures. It took a while for me to decide how to arm them, the Grav Cannons seem the obvious choice but I wasn't sure about them, but I think I will give them a go and see how they get on.

German - Conquest

Hey Folks...

The first game of our club Warmachine tourney happened this week and I managed to field my newly painted Conquest.  Needless to say that "newly painted model" syndrome hit and the big bugger didn't do anything.

Conquest

Having been off the hobby for a while with my shoulder injury I really felt rusty. I thought my 35pt Conquest list was a real winner but I played like a complete noob. I did have a chance to win the game as my Conquest had three chances to hit and kill the opposing Warcaster but he managed to miss with each swing.

Looking back at the game I don't think Irusk is the best caster to use with the Conquest, Fire For Effect is a good spell but Irusk cant really get anything else out of the big boy, I have a few candidates for my next caster which can utilise the Conquest so I have them ready to be painted up. I think the first one I will try with him is the Butcher, nice simple run and hit stuff. I think his buffs and feat will work better with the Conquest. Irusk is a finesse caster, the Butcher - not so much.

This month I also managed to paint up my IronFang Officer and Standard, the rest of the unit currently sitting in their box waiting to be assembled.

IronFang UA

As well as the Warmachine stuff I have been painting up some WW2 models of various scales. I have always had an interest in WW2 and have been reading up on it more and more over that last few years so I thought I would try out some WW2 gaming which I haven't ever really got into before.

German Infantry

A while ago I bought the new Flames of War (FOW) stater set, for the money its really good value. You get a bunch of models infantry and tanks for both the Germans and Americans plus some scenery, dice etc. Its a game I have looked at but never really liked the look of due to the infantry models, but the more I have looked at it the more I fancied having a go. I watched a few videos on YouTube and liked the look of it so I thought why not. The starter set isn't that expensive so if I don't like it, then I haven't wasted too much money. I painted up some of the tanks a while ago and now I have finished my first unit of Troops. This is one of the basic German infantry units, the beauty of 6mm is that you don't have to spend a massive amount of time on them to make them look good. I found that a basic paint scheme and then a wash with a basic highlight is enough to make them look pretty good. I also painted one of the big artillery pieces. I am looking forward to getting them on the table, one of the other guys at the club has the same set, so he is painting up the Americans so we can play our first game. I also picked up one of the "Army Books", these focus one one particular period or operation and give army lists for the forces that fought during that time. The first book I got was the one focusing on Operation Market Garden, there are two books, one looking at it from the German point of view and then the other from the Allies perspective. As well as the army lists there is a lot of interesting info on the history and people that were involved. They are well worth a read.

Pak 40

On the WW2 theme I have also picked up the rule book and some models for Bolt Action. This is a 28mm WW2 game and is very popular at the club I go to in Brighton. You don't need a massive amount of models for a decent game and the models do look very nice. I am in the middle of painting up my first German officer as a test piece before assembling the units and planning out my first 1000 points. Warlord actually have a 1000pt German Starter army that actually looks pretty cool so I might just invest in that.

So to finish off here are another couple of pictures of the Conquest. So whats next? Well I have a couple of new Khador casters to paint, also a couple of Warjacks in boxes namely a Spriggan and the character Jack Drago. I will also be aiming to finish off the rest of my Flames of War Germans so we can play our first game. The Bolt Action Germans will also get some attention purely because I really like the models.

Until next time...

One Warcaster and his dog (and a horse)

Hey folks,

Ok so yet again I am very late with another post, but this time I have a really good excuse. I am a very keen cyclist and about four weeks ago I got a bit too keen going down a hill and ended up having a bit of a crash which resulted in a broken collar bone. As you can appreciate this put a bit of a dampener on my hobby time. On the bright side once I got to be able to move my arm enough to get in the painting position I had enough time off work to actually get a lot done. What I had to do was get everything out with my good army, sit down and then with my good arm move my bad arm into position with the brush (after a bunch of painkillers). Then when I needed to dip or wash the brush I would take the brush out of my bad hand with the good hand, do what I needed and then put it back. This was slow, but I had plenty of time to kill.

So I have been focusing on my Khador arm, there is a Steamroller tourney coming up at the club and I wanted to get the Khador army all painted, as I have mentioned I don't like playing with unpainted models and there is nothing like a tourney deadline to spur on the painting. I have been playing a few practise games and have come up with a list I like, this tourney actually allows two lists, so I am going to take one list that I know will work ok and then something a bit more risky.

Epic Irusk. 

My list is basically a Winterguard Deathstar and this will form the basis of both lists. Then the other bits can be interchanged.

My caster is Epic Irusk. He works really well with an infantry based army, he is not a combat caster
but a buff/support caster. He gives Tough to units and allows them to move through each other and ignore friendlies when determining Line Of Sight. He has a couple of great spells like Fire For Effect which is an upkeep that allows a unit to boost To Hit and Damage rolls for the first shooting attack they make. This is great with a Mortar or Conquest for example.

The main Deathstar is as follows: -

5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers. 
Full Winterguard + Command and Standard + (1 to3) Rocketeers. 
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich.

The tactic is that the Shocktroopers go first and use Shield Wall and the Winterguard follow behind them. The Command and Standard give DEF bonuses and allow the unit spray attacks as well as normal shooting. Jozef has some useful songs to sing boosting To Hit rolls. The unit also has combined shooting and melee abilities so can take Warjacks and Infantry alike. This unit can really lay down the hurt.

The rest of the army changes depending on my mood and what models I want to take, in the main list I suspect I will take the following: -

Juggernaut. (Irusk only needs one Jack and the Jugger is good enough for 7 points).
Widowmakers. (Good unit to knock off some Warjack boxes or to take out some Solos early game).
Man-O-War Drakhun (Able move down flanks, or go after units holding objects, adds a bit of speed and hitting power to the army that largely needs to move as one).
Winterguard Mortar Crew (Big gun with a long range and AOE, whats not to love?).

The Second list will be the main Deathstar but will feature something a bit more risky: -

Conquest (Hard hit, big and shooty, will benefit from Fire For Effect. Downside is that its a lot of points for a 35pt list. If the enemy takes it out thats 19pts from a 35pt list, thats a big hole).

So the full lists are: -

List 1.
Epic Irusk
Juggernaut
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Drakhun
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers
Winterguard Mortar Crew
Widowmakers

List 2.
Epic Irusk
Conquest
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers

I am really enjoying playing my Khador army as they are really different to the Cryx I have been playing for the best part of three years. They were very much "run forward and hit stuff", but the Khador army takes a bit more thinking about but also has more options on what it can do.

So painting wise I have got a whole bunch of stuff done whilst I have been off, it has taken longer to do but I didn't really have anything else to do and there is only so much Jeremy Kyle you can take.

The first thing I did was get the Winterguard finished, they are one of those units that you just have to grit your teeth and get done. Models are ok, nothing exciting but once they are done its done.

After this I finished off the trusty Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich to go with the Winterguard, this veteran runs along side the unit singing his tunes to boost their skills.

With the bulk of the army done it was time to get the Warcaster finished. I left him to the end mainly so I can get the rest of the armies colours and patterns sorted so that when I come to paint the main character I wont make any errors.

The army was actually very simple to paint, there a really three main colours (Red, Grey and Gold). Once these have been painted onto the model the areas are washed with black to add the battle grime effect, the areas are then highlighted up using the original colours. The details are then picked out to finish off the model.

So whats next? Well to totally complete the army I need to finish the Widowmakers so these will be next. After that I really want to get the Conquest done, I am looking forward to this. Then I have a unit of Iron Fang to paint and then my whole Khador collection will be painted. I think this might be the first time I have all the models for a specific collection painted. 

So now they are done I am looking forward to putting them on the table at the club tourney, i'll let you know how they get on. 

Until next time... 

Khador, Eldar and the lull.

Hi Folks.

So its been a while.... I have been suffering the hobby lull. There have been a few reasons for this but basically real life has just popped its head through the door and I have been busy with other things. But to be honest I have also been lacking a bit of hobby inspiration. Its something we all go through at certain points. I just bought a new Time Trial bike so have been spending most evenings out on the bike getting some exercise, oh and my girlfriend moved over from Argentina.

Man-O-War ShockTroopers. 

I have been painting a few things though, last time I blogged I was working on Daemon army, well that has taken a bit of a back seat at the moment. I have been concentrating on my Warmachine Khador army and have finished off the Man-O-War Shocktroopers. I love this unit, they just look so cool and one of the main reasons that I went for Khador in the first place. I have also started on the Winterguard Unit and am about halfway through them, they are one of those units that just need to be done, not particularly fun to paint, but needs doing.

Winter Guard. 

Farseer. 

The Eldar codex has also been released this month and some of the models look really awesome. Eldar were my first really serious army and I won a couple of local tournaments with them many years ago. Whilst not seriously considering an Eldar army, I purchased a box of the Wraithguard/Wraithblade models to paint up just because I liked the look of them. I have also painted a Farseer model that I had lying around. Initially I fancied doing a Iyandan army in their traditional yellow scheme but having looked at a lot of the pictures I am not keen on the yellow plus its really hard to paint. I therefore went for a red scheme. I am having a bit of a red phase at the moment, maybe future generations that study my work will call this my "red period".

Wraithblade.

One thing that had perked up my hobby juices again is a little tourney we are having at the Brighton Club. Its a 750pt tourney with Combat Patrol style army list restrictions.

No 2+ saves.
No unit character with more than 2 wounds.
Vehicles with armour no more than 33 (thats adding up front, back and one side).
No HQ's
Must have 2 Troops.
All other choices from the normal force org.

I have to say its a real challenge to build this kind of army. My first thought was Marines as I have been playing them a lot lately, plus this edition is very shooting army orientated. I did a couple of lists but wasn't feeling it. So I thought - hey, its a fun tourney so lets roll out the Orks and see how many models  I can get into 750 points. I made a list and (as usual) it meant I had to paint a whole bunch of models in just two weeks. Well it turns out that when you have a target, like a touney, its amazing what you can do. So in the last couple of weeks I have managed to bang out 18 Ork Boyz with Shootas and 20 Gretchin. Now these are not painted to a great standard, but using certain techniques they are still pretty good, a high tabletop standard I would say. But it has got me painting again after having a bit of a lull. Having the target of the tourney really helped to motivate me to pickup a brush again. I managed to get the list to 100 models and this included three Truks. After a bit of thought I did reduce this a little to get one Power Klaw into the list but the model count is still 96. For 750 I think this is pretty good and it will be interesting to see how it rolls on the table, I have just gone for sheer numbers.... nothing is too powerful I have just gone for sheer numbers.

So whats in the future. Well I am determined to get my Khador stuff finished. I have a list that I like with a solid base of core choices. This will allow me to mix a few bits in and out whilst keeping the core stable. I really like playing with the Khador army, it's a refreshing change from playing Cryx for so long. I still want to do a Hordes army and the Skorne models are sitting on a shelf looking at me ready to get painted.

Until next time...